Johor sheds image of having high crime rate

18 June 2010 , By New Straits Times

Johor Baru is well on its way to change the perception that it is the "crime capital" of the country.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who made this observation yesterday, said efforts to reduce the crime rate in the state capital over the past year had been successful.

He said concerted efforts by the Johor government and police since the introduction of the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) had significantly reduced the crime rate in the state.

Hishammuddin also announced that the government had allocated RM140 million to build a district police headquarters for Nusajaya under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

The Nusajaya police headquarters is currently operating from a rented three-storey building with a strength of 200 personnel.

He also said that detractors, particularly those from opposition parties, were now targeting other cities to negatively label them as crime prone cities.

"From what I heard, they (the opposition) are now focusing on Ipoh to be labelled as having high crime rate," he said after a working visit to the Johor government administrative centre here yesterday.

Also present were Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and state police chief Datuk Mokhtar Shariff.

Hishammuddin said it was expected of the opposition to negatively label almost everything and it was the authorities' duty to rebut them.

He also commended the Iskandar Regional Development Authority for giving priority to security in the area under its administration by spending over RM43 million on facilities such as close circuit television cameras and computerised crime prevention early warning system.

Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, who was also present, admitted that security in the state capital and its surrounding area had always been among the main concerns of potential investors of the Iskandar Malaysia development corridor.

"But we have no problem in explaining to them about the real situation on the ground and once they are here, the investors always found that such (negative) perceptions were not true."

Ghani also pointed out that Johor was not the state with the highest crime rate.

"If I am not mistaken, the Federal Territory and Penang have a higher crime index than us. That is why I am not really sure what caused Johor to have such a bad reputation."

Ghani said ever since the NKRA was introduced last year, Johor's crime rate had dropped by about 19 per cent while the crime solving success rate had increased to about 45 per cent.

He attributed the success to the police's increased presence on the streets, vigorous promotion of community policing programme as well as the force's more effective crime prevention and intelligence gathering efforts.